Health Care Reforms and Focus on Heart Care

 I have been working in the U.S. for the past many months and back in India for the past few years on one domain – health care, and in particular that of U.S. As an employee in this domain, my contribution lies in the success of the client. The success of the client is achieved when the larger goal is met – the customers are healthier in particular, and the nation is healthier in general. It is the duty of employees like me to see that the work we do is reflected in making the nation, the healthiest version of itself. The minor or major work we do should improve things and cater to the larger goal of making the nation healthy.

As I said earlier, the health of the people will drastically improve when the health of people is put in center, by taking measures affecting the same. You can win when you put the customer at the center of every decision, action you take. But unfortunately, the spotlight is not on this all-important constituent of people’s life – health. There are too many variables at play, too many players at play and too many varied interests at play which attracts the action, decision of those who matter. This needs to be improved by eliminating the unnecessary distractions and bringing the spotlight back on the entity that matters – peoples health. I am not panicking or sending an SOS at the status quo which isn’t bad. But it isn’t good either as there is a room for a lot of improvement.

I will lay down few factors where there is room for reforms to improve the status quo.

Let us look at the health of the average U.S. citizen as to how good he is faring. According to a study on healthiest country index, the U.S. ranks 35th out of 169 countries. Once again, all the developed countries are faring much better than this nation. The nation’s health is sick among the developed world. There are few factors which are known to everyone contributing to this poor standing.

1. Universal health care

The countries that are ahead of the U.S. in the health rankings all offer universal health care to their people. In contrast, 25 – 30 million Americans do not have health care insurance, and an equal number are under insured. For 15 – 18% of our population, financial concerns about how to pay for a visit to the doctor, how to meet high insurance deductibles, or cash payments after insurance take precedence over taking care of their health.

2. Health Spending Far outweighs outcomes

U.S. spent more than $10,700 per capita in health care annually, more than three times as much as Spain and Italy which are top ranked in health index. Spending aggravates costs which common man cannot withstand.

3. Better diet: fresh ingredients, less packaged and processed food

There is little room for packaged, processed and fast foods in healthier nations, which leads to lower rates of cardiovascular diseases and diabetes. The majority of food consumed in U.S. comes under processed, fast food which can be termed as junk. The healthier nations boast of legendary and centuries-old food traditions emphasizing balance, variety, and freshness of ingredients. One very tangible result of all these culinary traditions is a much lower rate of obesity than in America. It is a well-known fact that adult obesity in U.S. exceeds all other nations ahead in rankings. About 40% of adults in the USA are obese due to poor diet, with too much consumption of packaged and processed food; too many fast-food meals.
4. Opioid abuse

The United States is grappling with one of its worst-ever drug crises. More than 1,500 people per week die from opioid-related overdoses. Meanwhile, millions more Americans suffer from opioid addiction. Analysts say the problem started with the over prescription of legal pain medications but note that it has intensified in recent years with an influx of cheap heroin and synthetic opioids, particularly fentanyl, supplied by foreign-based drug cartels. The crisis has reached such a scale that it has become a drag on the economy and a threat to national security: opioid misuse is costing the country tens of billions of dollars annually, not only in health-care expenses but also in the form of a weakened workforce. In 2019—the most recent year for which full data is available—opioid overdoses killed nearly fifty thousand people.

5. Gun Abuse and lack of controls

Then there is the widespread availability of firearms in the U.S., with over 24,000 suicides per year in the country being committed with guns. On the other hand, all the top 20 healthiest countries in the study share a strong safety net, low economic inequality, and strict gun control laws. It is impossible to write about the lower life expectancy in the U.S. relative to the rest of the developed world without mentioning the 50,000-gun deaths suffering annually. About 60% of these were suicides; and 40% homicides, or 4.4 deaths per 100,000 habitants. This is the one negative indicator where U.S. is not two or three times worse than other developed economies, but an order of magnitude worse—10 times or more.

It is high time; the work is done and reforms are brought in all these areas for a healthier U.S. The nations health is priority which needs to be put at the center or in the spotlight.

The one area which is not mentioned in the above 5 factors but a leading cause of health detractions in the country is heart diseases or attacks. This is one of the most disturbing, distressing, digressing, degenerative and dilapidating factor which needs to be wiped out like a virus. Heart disease is the leading cause of death for men, women, and people of most racial and ethnic groups in the United States. One person dies every 34 seconds in the United States from cardiovascular disease. About 697,000 people in the United States died from heart disease in 2020—that’s 1 in every 5 deaths. In the United States, someone has a heart attack every 40 seconds. Every year, about 805,000 people in the United States have a heart attack. Heart disease cost the United States about $229 billion each year from 2017 to 2018. This includes the cost of health care services, medicines, and lost productivity due to death. The data is astounding, and it is an urgent necessity, responsibility that we need to stop this epidemic.

This is not just restricted to U.S. but resonates on a global scale as well. Heart disease is the leading cause of death worldwide -- accounting for one-third of deaths. China had the highest number of heart disease deaths last year, followed by India, Russia, the United States and Indonesia. This is a silent pandemic which needs to be kept at bay by every health-conscious individual.

This entire write-up simply points out the skewed priorities of our times. We need to put our health first, heart-health first. Everything else can wait. We need to be extremely selfish towards our health, heart-health and should never trade these precious commodities for anything else. Everything else is far cheaper and lesser in value. September 29th is a world heart day which is in 10 days and let us pledge to take every step possible to eradicate this worldwide pandemic. The fight against covid-19 is won by mankind with all resolve. Let us wage a war on this heart disease pandemic too, which is killing more people than covid-19.